Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the bachelor of fine arts solo exhibition of Hannah Christopher, titled Force of Family. The exhibition will be held July 29- August 2, 2019, at the Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Woods Hall on UA campus. A closing reception for the artist will be held First Friday, August 2 from 1:00-4:00 p.m. in the gallery. Christopher has created uniquely designed, hand-crafted furniture in wood and metal, and other home furnishings, including ceramic lampshades, hanging and standing lamps, a storage chest that doubles as a coffee table, a five-sided dining table with six stools, set with a handmade ceramic table setting. After graduation, Christopher hopes to find a home for her creations in a professional design gallery. This exhibition is part of the bachelor of fine arts degree program in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. For more information about all our programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/.
UA Artists Help Create Alabama Bicentennial Celebration
“As the Bicentennial approaches it has been obvious that our state’s artists have, throughout the years, been some of our best and most prolific story tellers. Clearly the arts and artists of Alabama will take a high profile position in celebrations statewide.” -- Alabama State Council on the Arts Annual Report 2018 UA art and art history students, faculty, staff and alumni have been intensely involved in our state's 200th anniversary celebrations over the last two years. Here are some of the creative ways our UA art community is participating in commemorating Alabama's history and setting a path for its future: ALABAMA HISTORY IN HIGH RELIEF Professor Craig Wedderspoon is designing part of Montgomery’s Bicentennial park and sculpture project planned for the west side of the Capitol building to be unveiled in December of 2019, with help from Assistant Professor Jonathan Cumberland. Tuscaloosa artist Caleb O’Connor is creating sixteen bronze relief panels with Wedderspoon, who is designing and installing the panels’ bases and supervising the casting process. Cumberland recently joined the team to work on graphics for the project. Wedderspoon is also working with O’Connor on a Tuscaloosa Bicentennial sculpture to be installed at Manderson Landing on the Black Warrior River. ALABAMA ARTISTS FEATURED IN PUBLICATION Fifteen current and past faculty and alumni of the department are included in a special Bicentennial publication honoring notable Alabama artists. Alabama Creates: 200 Years of Art and Artists, published by the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and the University of Alabama Press, includes current Professor Craig Wedderspoon; distinguished art alumni William Christenberry, Frank Fleming, Darius Hill, Dale Kennington, James Emmette Neel, Scott Stephens; past faculty Gay Burke, Chip Cooper, Frank Engle, Al Sella, Richard Zoellner; and former UA art students John Kelly Fitzpatrick, Spider Martin, Carlos Alpha “Shiney” Moon and Nall Hollis. The coffee-table book will be coming out in July of 2019. Dr. Elliot Knight, ASCA’s new director, and a UA alumnus, was the chief editor and project director for Alabama Creates. COMMEMORATING ALABAMA'S MEDICAL HISTORY Alumnus April Terra Livingston recently completed three sculptures for the Mobile Medical Museum. Motherwork, which celebrates midwifery, is installed in the Mobile Medical Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden, along with Livingston’s Portrait of Bessie McGhee, a Poarch Creek midwife and herbalist. The Portrait of Dr. James A. Franklin, Sr., one of Mobile’s earliest African American physicians, is now on view in the Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery as part of the museum’s special exhibit Dreaming at Dawn: African Americans and Health Care, 1865-1945). Livingston's sculptures were made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts and have been designated a Bicentennial project by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. Read more about Livingston's new sculptures here: https://art.ua.edu/loupe/alumna-casts-sculptures-for-bicentennial-project/ APT FEATURES PROFESSOR EMERITUS AND ALUMNUS Associate Professor Emeritus Robert O. Mellown was interviewed for Alabama Public Television's Discovering Alabama special on our state capitals for the Bicentennial. His area of expertise is Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama historical architecture. The episode aired in October 2018. COMMUNITY BICENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS Solo exhibitions by instructor and alumnus Tom Wegrzynowski, instructor Charlotte Wegrzynowski and alumna Kerry Kennedy at the Kentuck Gallery and the Teer Gallery at the Kentuck Arts Center in Northport were the inaugural exhibitions for Kentuck's "Year of Alabama Artists," designated an official Bicentennial event. One of eight outdoor sculptures at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Craig Wedderspoon’s welded aluminum sculpture, Oval, is installed in the new John and Joyce Caddell Sculpture Garden at the museum. Oval is part of Art in the Garden: The Inaugural Sculpture Garden Installation that celebrates Alabama’s Bicentennial and demonstrates the depth of creativity found in the state. The sculptures will be on display through spring 2020. COINCIDING WITH ALABAMA'S BICENTENNIAL CASTING ALABAMA'S LITERARY HISTORY Cast bronze sculptures by students of Professor Craig Wedderspoon were unveiled in downtown Monroeville, Ala., in April, as part of the Literary Capital Sculpture Trail. Monroeville, the birthplace of author Harper Lee, and the home of the Alabama Writers Symposium for the past two decades, has been designated the Literary Capital of Alabama. The sculpture trail, made up of 14 cast bronze works, celebrates ten writers who have put Monroeville on the literary map, including Harper Lee, Truman Capote, journalist Cynthia Tucker, and novelist Mark Childress. Although not an official Bicentennial event, the sculpture trail and its unveiling was planned to coincide with the 200th anniversary celebrations. The artists were studio art major Hunter Abdo, senior anthropology major Alysa Boyd, sophomore studio art major Zane Boyd, senior BFA major in sculpture and anthropology major Amber Daum, graduate student in creative writing and geography Josh Dugat, Jenn Gault (BFA 2018), special student Jim Harrison III, senior art history major and studio art minor Morgan Harrison, Pat Hoban (MFA 2019), senior studio art major Jonathan Lanier, senior studio art major Hannah Lincoln, BFA major in sculpture Ringo Lisko and senior studio art major Alyson Smith. For a slideshow of all the sculptures, click on this page: http://monroevillemainstreet.com/Literary-Capital-Bronze-Sculpture-Trail This story was featured in the May 30 Bicentennial Banner! For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
Alumna Casts Sculptures for Bicentennial Project
April Terra Livingston’s new sculpture Motherwork stands as an iron-strong reminder of the endurance of women, and that it really does “take a village.” Celebrating the vital role of midwifery today and in history – termed “motherwork” by scholar Patricia Hill Collins – the cast iron sculpture is one of three new works by Livingston commissioned for the Mobile Medical Museum in Mobile, Ala. Eight pairs of life-size hands, cast from the hands of real midwives and obstetric nurses, clasp together in a circle with a central opening, both protective and in the act of assisting birth, symbolizing the collective effort it takes to bring new life into the world and sustain it. The artistic work itself is also collective. Motherwork is one of three sculptures by Livingston (MFA 2011) that were cast by an all-woman iron pour crew at the Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum in Indiana last summer. Motherwork is installed in the Mobile Medical Museum’s Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden, along with Livingston’s portrait busts of the Poarch Creek midwife and herbalist Bessie McGhee and Dr. James A. Franklin, Sr., one of Mobile’s earliest African American physicians. Livingston’s sculptures for the Mobile Medical Museum have been designated a Bicentennial project by the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. The three cast iron works are the centerpiece of the museum’s exhibit, Dreaming at Dawn: African Americans and Health Care, 1865-1945, that tells the story of African American medical practitioners in Mobile during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. The exhibit will be on view in the Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery at the museum through July 2019. For information about the exhibition, visit https://www.mobilemedicalmuseum.org/. The hands of Motherwork could be Livingston’s own. The three sculptures are the most recent of her works commemorating some of Alabama’s lesser known history. In 2017, Livingston cast the bust of Cudjoe Lewis, a survivor of the slave ship Clotilda and a founder of Africa Town, for Union Baptist Church in Mobile (see The Loupe, spring 2017). For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and its programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.
Four BFA Majors Showcase Senior Work
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present a group exhibition by four bachelor of fine arts candidates. Samantha Joslin, Jonathan Lanier, Caroline Rothschild and Dana Tokarzewski will display their work April 16-23, 2019, in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery on UA campus. A reception for the artists will be held Thursday, April 18, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm in the gallery. The BFA is the professional degree for artists, with a focused program of study in visual art. These students have completed intensive research in a primary and secondary concentration in art. Jonathan Lanier's concentrations are in sculpture and ceramics. Since 2016, he has won several scholarship awards including the Farley Moody Galbraith Scholarship, Windgate Charitable Fund – Studio Arts, and the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship. Lanier will also hold a solo exhibition of his work at Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa in May. Samantha Joslin’s concentrations are in ceramics and sculpture. Her current body of work has come out of studio research that focuses on the exploration of forms, surfaces and interactions among different media. Joslin has won numerous scholarships and awards, including a UA Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity (URCA) grant in the spring of 2019. She will exhibit her sculpture in a solo exhibition at Harrison Galleries in April. Joslin plans to continue her studies in a post-baccalaureate program that combines her ceramics and sculpture work. Caroline Rothschild's concentrations are in drawing and painting. Dana Tokarzewski's concentrations are in digital media and photography. This group of BFA majors have approached their work from diverse viewpoints — from a focus on abstract form, to creating work that expresses the tensions of the outer world and nature, embodied in the inner conflicts common to all humans. The artists employ a variety of media to carry these ideas into physical form, using cast bronze, digital media, clay, wood, foam, paint, graphite, and photography. This exhibition is part of the bachelor of fine arts degree program in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. For more information about all our programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. Funding support for the Sella-Granata Art Gallery comes from the Department of Art and Art History and the College of Arts and Sciences. Admission to the gallery is always free. Hours are Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The gallery is located at 109 Woods Hall in the heart of the UA campus on Woods Quad. Information about visitor parking is available here: http://bamaparking.ua.edu/visitor-information/. For more information, contact the gallery at (205) 348-2783 or visit: https://art.ua.edu/gallery/sgg/.
BFA Senior to Exhibit at Harrison Galleries
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the bachelor of fine arts solo exhibition of Samantha Joslin, titled Matter of Normalcy. The exhibition will be held April 5-15, 2019, at Harrison Galleries, in downtown Tuscaloosa. A reception for the artist will be held First Friday, April 5 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. in the gallery. Samantha Joslin's BFA concentrations are in ceramics and sculpture. Her current body of work has come out of studio research that focuses on the exploration of forms, surfaces, and interactions between different media. "These interactions are reflective of life in its most intimate moments and conditions," she says. "My current body of work centers on pieces which imitate experience in life and the human form, thus speaking of the relationships between ourselves, the world around us, and its interpretations through emotion. I am interested in illustrating the human condition in a way which is simultaneously familiar yet peculiar and understandable yet puzzling. The balancing of such physical and conceptual contrasts leads to an investigation of visual formlessness, which obscures categorization. I want to expand upon this notion of blurring identity as it connotatively relates to social circumstances and interactions, and how visual factors like contrast, scale, visual speed and interactions of materials can subtly reflect these themes." Joslin was a University of Alabama Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity (URCA) grant recipient in the spring of 2019 and a Windgate Fellowship nominee in 2019. She received the Carolyn Haddon “Julie” Matthews Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Farley Mood Galbraith Annual Scholarship and the Paul R. Jones Endowed Scholarship. She was a student employee in the Sella-Granata Art Gallery and was awarded UA work-study grants in sculpture and ceramics. In 2018, Joslin was awarded a paid internship under Tuscaloosa sculptor Lee Busby. She has been awarded tuition grants to participate in ‘Sculpture: Clay, Wood, and Steel’ by Trey Hill, Anderson Ranch Workshop, Snowmass Village, Colo. and has served as a volunteer demonstrator in clay for the Arts Renaissance in Tuscaloosa Schools (ARTS) at Matthews Elementary School. She was also a member of Crimson Clay Club, serving as treasurer. After her graduation in May, Joslin hopes to undertake a post-baccalaureate program. "I am planning to focus mainly on ceramics while still incorporating sculptural elements and other materials." This exhibition is part of the bachelor of fine arts degree program in the Department of Art and Art History at The University of Alabama. For more information about all our programs, visit this link: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. Harrison Galleries, LLC, is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa. Hours are Monday through Friday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., by appointment, and First Fridays of the month, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. For more information call (205) 464-0054 or visit the website: http://www.firstfridaytuscaloosa.com/art-galleries/harrison-galleries-llc.
Artist Bridges Gap Between Art and Medicine Through Sculpture
Tuscaloosa. — The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History is pleased to present the master of arts thesis exhibition of Katie Adams, titled Space Between the Ears. The exhibition will be held March 21-31, 2019, at Harrison Galleries, in downtown Tuscaloosa. A reception for the artist will be held Friday, March 22 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. in the gallery. Adams designs and builds sculptures that visually express the effects of neurological disorders on those afflicted as well as the people around them, both in form and through the media in which she works. “My sculptures examine the complications of neurological disorders. Each piece builds a perspective for viewers to experience simultaneously the breakdown of neurological systems as well as the disruption of function and communication.” She wants the experience of viewing her sculpture to bring a realization to the viewer that, as she says, “perspective can be distorted without materially changing objects.” Adams works with metal, glass, ceramics and photography for the work in this exhibition. She explains, "Each brain model is different: with each disease the portions of the brain affected are either missing or made of glass instead of metal.” Adams hopes that by bridging the gap between art and medicine through her work, she will help people understand what is happening physically and mentally with neurological diseases. Katie Adams is a graduate student in sculpture. Adams received the BA from Western Kentucky University in art with a concentration in sculpture. Her work has been included in numerous juried and group exhibitions including Height x Width x Depth (HWD) in Kettering, Ohio; 51st Annual National Drawing and Small Sculpture Show, Corpus Christi, Texas, and 24th Annual Jack Lunt Memorial Juried Art Exhibition, Bowling Green, Ky. She demonstrated at the 2016 Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design Convention (SOFA) in Chicago. Her work consists mostly of metal, wood and glass components. Adams says that she searches to understand and combine nature’s physical elements and systems with emotional connections. Image credit: Katie Adams, Brain, versatile plastic, 10 x 10 x 12 inches. Image courtesy of the artist. A thesis exhibition is one of the requirements for the successful completion of the Master of Arts program in the UA Department of Art and Art History. For more information about The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History degree programs, visit our website: https://art.ua.edu/academics/. Harrison Galleries, LLC, is located at 2315 University Boulevard in downtown Tuscaloosa. The hours of the UA Gallery are Monday through Friday, 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m., and First Fridays of the month, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. For more information call (205) 464-0054 or visit the website: http://www.firstfridaytuscaloosa.com/art-galleries/harrison-galleries-llc.
UA Instructor Jamey Grimes Wins Select Southern Art Award
Full-time instructor Jamey Grimes has been named the 2019 South Arts State Fellowship recipient for Alabama and awarded $5,000. The South Arts State Fellowships are awarded to one artist each in nine southern states whose work reflects the best of the visual arts in the South. Artistic excellence is the sole criterion for selection. Grimes will now compete for the Southern Prize, which includes an additional $25,000 cash award and a two-week residency at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. Grimes, along with the other State Fellows, will be featured in an exhibit at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina, from March 21 – May 5, 2019. The winner of the Southern Prize and a $10,000 finalist award will be announced at a ceremony celebrating the State Fellows on April 15 at 701 CCA. The South Arts Southern Prize and State Fellowships acknowledge, support and celebrate the highest quality artistic work being created in the American South. The program is open to individual artists living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. This is the first year that the South Arts fellowship winners will be featured in a group exhibit. “One of our goals is to celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South,” continued Surkamer. “By curating a public exhibit of the State Fellows, we are able to share their dynamic work and highlight the breadth of style cultivated throughout our region.” Jamey Grimes, who has taught in UA's Department of Art and Art History since 2008 and is an alumni of its MFA program, has shown his artwork widely throughout the US. His exhibitions include the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts; Austin Peay State University’s New Gallery, Clarksville, Tenn.; Stephen Smith Fine Art, Fairfield, Ala.; Kendall Galleries, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Dunedin Fine Art Center, Fla.; Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Sculpture Key West; and FAT Village, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Grimes’ sculpture has been installed in temporary and permanent venues around the country. Throughfall was permanently installed at Pinnacle Bank, Nashville, Tenn., in 2009. In 2012, his work was selected for the lobby of the Pinellas County Health Department in Largo, Fla., and in 2013 his sculpture was installed at the Fairmont Chicago at Millennium Park in Chicago, Il. In 2017, Grimes installed a second large-scale sculpture, Flow, in the headquarters of Pinnacle Bank in Nashville, Tenn. Grimes was awarded the 2015 Visual Arts Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa. He is a 2012-2013 Alabama State Council on the Arts Visual Arts Fellowship Recipient. He won the 29th West Alabama Juried Art Show Purchase Prize (2013); the Purchase Award at the 39th Annual Bi-State Art Competition, Meridian Museum of Art, Meridian, MS (2012); and was selected for the 10th Anniversary Installation, 4 Bridges Arts Festival, First Tennessee Pavilion, Chattanooga, TN. Grimes was also the Guest Juror for the 2015 Orange Beach (AL) Arts Festival; he was the 2014 Creativity in Collaboration Grant recipient for Projection Mapping, with UA's Creative Campus. Go to our website for more information about UA’s Department of Art and Art History degree programs.
UA Sculpture To Collaborate With UAB and UAH on New Art Trail
Professor Craig Wedderspoon is one of three inaugural recipients of the new McMahon-Pleiad Prize, given by the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System. The prize has been awarded to a collaborative public art project, the McMahon-Pleiad Public Art Trail initiative, conceived by Wedderspoon and his colleagues Stacey Holloway of UAB's department of art and art history and Chris Taylor of UAH's department of art, art history, and design. Established by the Board to honor Trustee Emeritus John J. McMahon, Jr., the McMahon-Pleiad Prize advances collaboration in the UA System, consistent with the vision and leadership of Trustee Emeritus McMahon. The Prize includes a $75,000 one-time award, underwritten by the McMahon family, which will be shared equally among the three UA System art departments to cover the cost of project materials and related expenses. At each of the three UA System campuses, each group will design and create a durable, well-crafted public sculpture that enhances the visual aesthetic of each campus. The three outdoor pieces will rotate every two years, then return to their originating campus for permanent installation. Each team plans to unveil the sculptures before June 2019. According to UA News Center, a primary goal of the public art trail is to create opportunities for faculty and students in all three System art departments to discuss, develop and install projects collaboratively. Students will be able to share their designs with new and expanded audiences. According to the proposal, which was chosen from more than a dozen entries, “The McMahon-Pleiad Public Art Trail has the potential to visually enhance the entire UA System with an innovative, world-class public art program.” Professor Wedderspoon described the project's progress on UA's campus so far: "I put it out to my sculpture students as a design competition and junior BFA sculpture major Ringo Lisko’s proposal has been chosen. She has just started working on the wax for a scale model. Next she will get to work on the full-scale piece." Board president pro tem Ronald Gray described the public art trail project: “It represents the essence of collaboration and creative excellence that defines our friend and colleague John McMahon and our System.” For more information about the UA Department of Art and Art History and our programs, go here: https://art.ua.edu/about/
UA Alumnus Creates Giant Working Kaleidoscope
Ever had a sudden urge to peer through a giant kaleidoscope? Now you can! The latest permanent public sculpture, titled simply Kaleidoscope, is designed and built by UA art alumnus and foundry specialist Eric Nubbe, and has been installed by UA Art Foundry at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa. Commissioned by Tuscaloosa PARA, the seven-foot-high aluminum sculpture is a working, interactive kaleidoscope, perched at the northwest corner of the park. Since kaleidoscopes are shaped like a simple tube, Nubbe decided to make the massive optical instrument more interesting, so he chose the shape of a sextant - another viewing instrument which sailors have used to navigate the seas for hundreds of years. The kaleidoscope looks northwest into the sky over Tuscaloosa and the mirrors inside the kaleidoscope reflect whatever the skies look like on that day. In many kaleidoscopes, loose pieces of colored glass inside the tube are mirrored into symmetrical and colorful patterns as you turn the scope. Nubbe decided to add something similar to his. Instead of just looking up into refracted reflections of the sky, viewers look through translucent blue Plexiglas gears that Nubbe cut [on?]. When visitors look into the viewer, they rotate a disk just to the right of the scope, and the disk turns the blue gears inside, creating beautiful blue patterns across the sky. Eric Nubbe's Kaleidoscope is part of a Public Art Project commissioned by the Tuscaloosa County Parks and Recreation Authority to put art in parks around Tuscaloosa County. Giant steel flowers created by student artists Ringo Lisko and Amber Daum were installed last year in Monnish Park as part of the same project.